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Builders of Egypt: Prologue News

RELEASE DATE IS COMING

Hello Builders!


The day you've all been waiting for is almost here!

Repeatedly postponed, hinted at, changed, but never given exactly. What are we talking about..?

[h3]The release date! [/h3]

This is, of course, the biggest event in the game's production cycle for us (and maybe even in our lives?), so we'll be doing a commemorative streaming next week to mark the occasion, so ....

Next Friday (13th September), we’ll be hosting a stream to announce the release date! You can catch us on both Twitch and Steam for this special occasion. The exact time of the stream will be posted in the upcoming Stream Event here on Steam, so stay tuned!

This is the most important info, but we’ve got a few more exciting updates to share!


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[h3]REGULAR STREAMS[/h3]
We’ll be hosting regular streams leading up to release day! These streams are the perfect opportunity to check out how the game looks, learn new details about the gameplay, and most importantly – hang out with Emi and other Builders! Plus, you’ll get to see new content we haven’t shown before! During the streams, we’ll also share some behind-the-scenes insights into the development process and give you an exclusive sneak peek at the features we’re most excited about. Whether you're a seasoned fan or new to the community, there will be plenty to discover and enjoy.
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[h3]PROLOGUE AND DEMO UPDATE[/h3]
To make the wait more enjoyable, we’ll also be rolling out major updates to the Prologue and Demo versions. While they’re not the full game, you’ll be able to get a feel for what’s coming. In a nutshell - better optimization, bug fixes, improved balance, and new content!

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[h3]SOCIAL MEDIA[/h3]
We know not everyone uses social media, but during this pre-release period, it will be key! We’ll be posting more info, updates, and sneak peeks more frequently than on Steam, so be sure to follow us there. If you have any questions or issues with the game, join our Discord for quicker support!



See you on Friday’s stream - we’re so excited that it’s happening!

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New Prologue update STREAM

Stream from the latest update to Builders of Egypt: Prologue. We'll go over the news and changes to the game :)
See you at 3:00 CET on Steam and Twitch

Big Prologue update!

It is with great pleasure that I present to you an update to the Builders of Egypt game, bringing with it a number of expected changes, as well as some that no one expected, but were worth adding to the game.
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You'll be able to see all these changes for yourself:[/h3]
  • this Saturday [16.12.2023] at 6:00 CET when the patch will be rolled out
  • this Saturday [16.12.2023] at 3:00 CET on Steam and Twitch, where you'll be able to watch Emi once again as she takes on the new challenges!


Twitch -> official Twitch channel

If you want to know more about the full version and the expected release date of the game, scroll down. Without further ado, here is the presentation of the changes!

Note that I'm mainly comparing the changes to this year's [Playtest], which I'll refer to as such, but I'll also mention [Prologue], which I'll refer to as such, and for which the list of changes is particularly relevant.
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1. [Prologue] New map and major revisions to the 1st and 2nd maps.
[/h3]There is a new third map where you will face more challenges. There are new buildings and the ability to use them to satisfy parameters that did not affect the game in previous missions. You may also find that the police station finally has a sense of existence in this game.



[h3]2. [Playtest]&[Prologue] Scripted Events.[/h3]
Scripted main events have appeared in which there are various tasks to complete. Usually these will involve delivering or collecting products, but in later missions where more mechanics are revealed, things get a lot more interesting.

What do scripted events mean? Firstly, they will not always appear during the game. Sometimes the player has to "overdo it" [annoy Pharaoh and you'll quickly see what I'm writing about here] to trigger an event or reach the appropriate level of city development.

When such an event is triggered, it must be completed to complete the mission. Completed does not mean successful, an event can just as easily fail and then it is also completed. And what effect this has on the rest of the game you will find out in the full version!



[h3]3. [Playtest]&[Prologue] Side Quests.[/h3]
An all-new feature that makes waiting for various events or mission completion more polite. From time to time, a person in town will ask the player for the location of a person or item. As you progress through each mission, the variety of tasks increases significantly. In other words, almost every building has a quest associated with it, which can be triggered at different times. These tasks are not mandatory, but they can provide tangible benefits, sometimes disproportionate to the task at hand 😊



[h3]4. [Playtest]&[Prologue] UI changes.[/h3]
A big problem was understanding what was actually happening to the city and what was affecting the changing parameters. From now on, all parameters of the city will be additionally described, but most importantly they will have their own graph. On the basis of such a graph, it is possible to estimate the trend of changes in a particular parameter. Each resource also has a graph showing how much of the resource has been stored, bought and sold, so you can see what has happened to a particular resource over time.



The second major change to the interface is the ability to change important mission parameters. It is now possible to turn off fires completely, or to turn off Desirability - the rating of neighbouring buildings by houses. The latter feature has been a major point of contention in discussions about its legitimacy or how it works. It has been corrected and better presented in the House tab.

The same goes for the Sentiment parameter - it was previously presented in a very obvious way, which has now changed. Of course, in addition to the hints that appear, the house itself will tell you why it doesn't want to raise its level or why people are fleeing. The inhabitants themselves will also have more to say.

[h3]5. [Prologue] Advanced Tutorial.[/h3]
Most of you will already be familiar with this, but for Prologue players it will be something of a novelty - in Missions 2 and 3 you will be able to complete an additional tutorial that explains how to complete the mission and solve the problems that await the player in general. This tutorial, unlike what you saw in Mission 01, allows some freedom in planning the construction of individual buildings, while also explaining the super-important relationship between buildings, especially between Production Buildings and Stockpiles.



[h3]6. [Prologue] Adding voice actors.[/h3]
Seemingly nothing, and somehow it made loading missions more enjoyable. Still no matter that the huge text is assimilated faster, but reading the text is not mandatory and out of respect for the history of Ancient Egypt we could not write less there than you see yourself 😉
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7. [Playtest] Restoration of language versions. [/h3]
Some of you accidentally discovered that the blocked language versions can be bypassed using Prologue. Unfortunately, the effect of this was that the game then was partly in English and partly in the language of your choice. We are now restoring all languages. The quality of the translations has been improved but it is still not perfect, and sometimes probably far from the ideal we would like to achieve. Quite a few errors have been corrected, especially inconsistencies between building names and, for example, commands in the tutorial. No less professional translations and additional proofreading at a level we can find in AAA games is costing 1/3 of the total BoE budget, which, to say the least, we can't afford.

In view of this, if you see a glaring translation error - let us know! I now have a total content lock and a dedicated person to implement all corrections, so any corrections will go much faster than it was before.

[h3]8. Builders of Egypt release.[/h3]
A few words about the current state of Builders of Egypt and its expected release. After longer than planned testing of the Prologue update that this post is about, I'm left with a few tweaks to the code, and the whole game will be handed over to PlayWay QA for testing and tweaking. This means that realistically we are about 3 months away from release. This is subject to change as testing all 39 missions is difficult to estimate.

Take care!
Jacek



https://discord.gg/mhT7sqHKk3

Devblog: Prologue #03

Hello, Builders!


Today we come to you with an important post. This is because we want to summarize the most important changes you will see in the upcoming Playtests! We know you can't wait, so be sure to read on and sign up for the playtests. Be sure to share your thoughts!
We also invite you to follow us on our other social media: https://bit.ly/m/buildersofegypt
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[h2]Economy Balans[/h2]

[h3]Trading and Stockpiles[/h3]
You pointed out the marginal chances of coming out ahead financially, even realizing the minimum requirements of the mission. There were several reasons why this was happening. First of all, proper rebalancing is a long process that requires a fair amount of effort. And such a process is best done if one has already changed nothing or almost nothing in the game in a fundamental way.
In the case of Builders of Egypt, the balancing was done at the early Prologue build stage, and then as a result of dynamic changes in the behavior of the Trader and even minor adjustments in the behavior of buildings and Stockpile workers, the balance was upset to such an extent that completing the mission was very difficult. In addition, launching and fixing the tax system, under which payments to employees enter, did not improve this situation either.
As you can easily guess this has all been fixed in the new version and in the upcoming playtests you will have the opportunity to test this. The number of goods that a neighboring city can buy has been significantly increased. The Trader himself moves much faster to compensate for the distance he has to cover on the map and exchanges his goods more efficiently. Stockpile workers also move much faster, by almost 80% (while still maintaining a realistic appearance) which dramatically improves overall production efficiency. In Stockpile itself, the order queuing system for goods has been improved, and as a result, everything runs more smoothly.

[h3]Building - monuments and pyramids[/h3]

The construction of the Monument, while impressive, may have bored you with its slowness of progress. Here, two major changes have been made - the Stockpile has priority for supplying the Monument with the goods it requires. That is, if you build a Stockpile that handles only the goods required to build the Monument then the shipping and transport of these goods is lightning fast.
The second change relates to pyramids, as they are mainly where the second problem occurs. You know those ramps that wind around the pyramid to the top? Unfortunately, while this is somehow realistic and looks cool, measuring the time with a stopwatch, it turns out that it takes an eternity to deliver one piece of goods from the Stockpile to the very top of the monument under construction. And, after all, such a worker still has to return before taking another order. In view of this, we proposed a compromise - an additional feature was introduced in the options to be able to choose the behavior of Stockpile workers: a realistic mode, i.e. the same as before, and a simplified mode, i.e. workers leave goods at the base of the Monument in the same way as they leave them at all other production buildings. The difference in the time it takes for the pyramid to be built is downright incomparable, but it was hard to come up with any other solution here besides taking shortcuts which would be to reduce the number of construction stages or the number of goods the player has to deliver. After all, it's a pyramid! It's the result of years of hard work by tens of thousands of skilled workers!
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[h2]Missions[/h2]
As you already know, there will be 5 missions available to you during playtesting. There is no need to dwell on them again, but the most significant change concerns the objectives to be fulfilled, the resources on the map, the introduction of animals (which were also there before but were decorative at the time), a change in the list of buildings, a change in the number of neighboring cities, etc. That is, a lot of small qualitative changes that will strongly diversify the gameplay and make the world more lively. All this makes the game experience even better!

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[h2]Better start for new players[/h2]
We are committed to making Builders of Egypt a game where there is something for everyone - both veterans of the genre and novice players who are just taking their first steps in city-builders.

Example of the first step of Mission 02

So another big change is the way the player is introduced to the game. While the tutorial in mission 01 is fine and has been slightly corrected with the addition of two buildings, without which the player will not meet the objectives of the mission, the tutorial also appears in later missions but in a different form. We call it such a semi-tutorial because, although strict restrictions are imposed, but the player can build freely in the designated area, which is heavily scripted and checks the correctness of the construction of the resulting city. In this way we want to let the player decide for himself what and where he wants to build, but at the same time provide him with all the necessary information for this. It is important to realize that our game is not simple in general and there are quite specific rules that the player has not encountered anywhere before, such as the need to build a road to the "gate" on the board for the Trader to want to come (the lack of this road is additionally informed to the player in a scripted hint), the need to build the Stockpile as a hub for reloading all goods, what function the bazaar has, and so on. For experienced players with such games, all these rules are obvious, while for anyone less experienced quite a lot of information they need to possess before they start playing seriously. That's why these changes are so important - so that everyone can get the best out of the game!

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[h2]Bug fixes[/h2]

Of course, in addition to the aforementioned changes, there have also been plenty of fixes for smaller and larger bugs that you may have encountered during gameplay. We try to eliminate as many of them as possible, but the process of creating the game is so complicated that it is impossible to remove ALL bugs at this stage. We believe that during the playtests you will help us catch new bugs that we can remove and provide you with a stress-free gameplay :)


As always, we thank you for being with us and supporting us. We are constantly working on the development of the game, so you will not be disappointed!

Devblog: Prologue #02

Hello, Builders!


We hope you are doing well! We greatly appreciate all the feedback you've shared with us. Your input has been invaluable in shaping the future of the game. We have some exciting updates and news to share with you today!
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[h3]Enhanced Gameplay Experience[/h3]
Based on your valuable feedback, we have received a recommendation to add more scripted hints to the game. These hints can be toggled on or off, allowing players to customize their experience. For example, if there is a fire in your city, the game will guide you to the affected location, explaining what is happening and providing suggestions on how to handle the situation effectively. These scripted hints aim to improve the overall player experience and assist those who are new to this genre of games.

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[h3]Playtest[/h3]
We are in the process of putting the final touches before the playtest launch. We're not only focusing on fixing bugs but also on providing a smooth and engaging introduction for new players who may be unfamiliar with this type of game. The playtest build will be carefully crafted to captivate and immerse new players, ensuring a memorable experience from the very beginning. Please note that the playtest will not include the full campaign.

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[h3]Retesting and Determining Our Progress[/h3]
Following the implementation of various changes and improvements, we have sent the build for retesting to our trusted partners at QA PlayWay. The feedback we receive from this process will help us assess our progress and identify any areas that require further refinement. We greatly appreciate your patience and support as we work diligently to make Builders of Egypt the best it can be.

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[h3]Changes in Mission Structure[/h3]
In preparation for the playtest, we have partially revamped the mission structure. Previously, the difficulty level of the sample missions was intended to provide a glimpse of what the full version of Builders of Egypt would eventually offer. However, we realized that the initial mission was overly challenging, making it nearly impossible for new players to complete. In the playtest build, you will witness significant changes. Mission 01 will now serve as an introductory mission where players can learn the basics of city building at their own pace. Each subsequent mission will introduce new mechanics, expanding the possibilities of building and managing a city. Mission 02 will present the challenge of food shortages while maintaining adequately developed houses. Mission 03 will introduce animal interactions and complex production, and in Mission 04, you will encounter their first monument. We believe these changes will provide a more accessible and enjoyable experience for players of all levels.

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[h3]Campaign Info[/h3]
The campaign, consisting of 39 missions, will be reserved for the full version of the game. Each mission in the campaign will be experienced sequentially, and the decisions made during each mission will affect the course of subsequent ones. Your reactions to requests from Pharaoh, neighboring cities, and major events (not available in the playtest) will have consequences, ranging from altered starting parameters to varying levels of banditry, trade interest from neighboring cities, and the intensity of possible troop attacks. We're excited to provide you with a rich and immersive campaign experience upon the game's full release.

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[h3]Join us on other social media platforms - Discord, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube![/h3]
We are aware of the prolonged development process, so we encourage you to join our other social media, where you can have a nice time, connect with super people and also learn additional things about the game! You can join here:

Discord Facebook Twitter YouTube